Analysis: The Pollution Problem: It's a Plastic World After All

Eight million tonnes of plastic drift through the darks waves of the world’s oceans which is approximately 51 trillion microplastic particles or over 500 times the number of stars in our galaxy and experts say it’ll increase by 40 percent by 2025.

Social media videos offer a glimpse of the damaging effects single-use products are having on the world. Articles, reports, and studies provide statistics and warn readers that by 2050, there will be more disposable items than fish swimming through the waves.

At least 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean comes from land, while the rest surfaces from discarded fishing and shipping materials. Every second, at least 400 kg of plastic enters the marine ecosystem.

Still the masses of dejected plastic bottles, bags, and utensils continue to grow and recent health reports show the plastic problem has now completed a full circle.

Plastic fibers have been detected in tap water in nations around the globe with a percentage rate of 94, Orb Media investigators report. While, researchers from the University of Exeter say traces of polycarbonates, specifically the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) which is used in producing plastic containers, is present in the digestive system of approximately 86 percent of adolescents.

Microplastic expert Dr. Sherri Mason said, “We have enough data from looking at wildlife, and the impacts that it’s having on wildlife, to be concerned...If it’s impacting [wildlife], then how do we think that it’s not going to somehow impact us?”

However, despite the evidence proving the danger associated with plastic production, corporations are turning out products like never before with the support of its modern convenience-addicted consumer behind them.

In the first global study on the life-cycle of plastics published from Science Advances in 2017, results show that only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic produced is ever recycled.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure. It’s not just that we make a lot, it’s that we also make more, year after year,” said lead study director Roland Geyer.

The stretch of the Caribbean Sea shared between Guatemala and Honduras is just one example of gravity of the current global situation. An island of garbage floats between both countries, suffocating wildlife and destroying the local ecosystem in one fell swoop.

Honduran Minister of Natural Resources and Environment José Antonio Galdames said, "People do not want to go to the beach because they are afraid of pollution, it's not nice to lie down in a sand where you put your back and there's a needle underneath, or you walk and you're going to stick. and you're going to find something contaminated.”

Clean up teams have raked in anything from clothes to plastics, hospital waste and syringes to animals and human bodies.

"In the rainy season...we get up and clean and by the afternoon it is full of garbage again, as if we had not done anything, they are piles and piles of garbage everywhere," the minister said.

Environmental engineer and oceanic plastic waste specialist Jenna Jambeck said, “We all knew there was a rapid and extreme increase in plastic production from 1950 until now, but actually quantifying the cumulative number for all plastic ever made was quite shocking.”

Though the dangers of pollution have been clearly communicated since the first Earth Day in 1970, the global catastrophe has continued to contaminate Australia’s coral reef, transform the Caribbean’s crystal beaches to polluted cesspools, and choke life out of the marine ecosystem with its polycarbonate toxins.

Some experts say this is a direct response of environmentalists’ panicked cry for help to the public which has only served to aggravate the issue.

California State University history professor and author of “The Voice of the Earth- An Exploration of Ecopsychology,” Theodore Roszak believes the lack of participation is directly related to activists’ manner of addressing the issue, describing their call to action as “one dimensional psychology.” 

"The movement wants a lot of change very rapidly and tries to get this by scaring people and shaming people. It's bad psychology. People resent being talked to that way, and if you continue to talk that way without helping them understand and make the changes, they stop listening. That's what is happening.

“My concern is that they need a better way to talk to the public."

Many companies have opted to cater to the demand of commercialism in consumer markets, developing plastic-like bags and rain ponchos made completely from plant materials such as yuca, cassava, corn, and soy.

Environmental organizations have emerged, offering a biodegradable bracelet in exchange for donations to fund their clean-up projects.

One Ecuadorean woman has found a way to repurpose milk cartons commonly found throughout Latin America, creating household items, furniture, and fashion wear as well a two story home out of 1.2 million milk cartons.

While some nations, such as Kenya have taken it to the next level and completely banned the use of plastic bags around the country. Reusable grocery bags have been introduced in almost every supermarket from first to third world countries.

For their part, Amazonian Indigenous communities from Peru’s fishing districts banned together, using ancient methods to combat the pollution and “climate catastrophes” which have invaded the region.

While scientists continue to investigate the possibilities of pollution fighting animals such as the wax worm caterpillar of 2017- which could consume plastic at an hourly rate- the styrofoam-eating mealworm of 2015, and more recently the plastic-eating enzyme.

Though the enzyme is unable to function or swim in water, many believe it is a step in the right direction and the beginning of a promising effort in solving the global crisis.

Australian Chemist at RMIT University, Oliver Jones explained enzymes are non-toxic, biodegradable, and easily produced, “I think [the new research] is very exciting work, showing there is strong potential to use enzyme technology to help with society’s growing waste problem.

“There is still a way to go before you could recycle large amounts of plastic with enzymes, and reducing the amount of plastic produced in the first place might, perhaps, be preferable. [But] this is certainly a step in a positive direction.”

With the world just thirty years away from oceans full of plastic, one can only hope that these efforts among others will be enough to change the game and finally put the problem of plastic pollution to an end.

Published for teleSUR English

Sources:

Nas Daily-National Geographic-Planet Aid-Whale and Dolphin Conservation-The Guardian-The New York Times-El Universal-La Nacion-CNN-ATTN-The Mobile Herald-UN-Delano-One Green Planet